


Ghosts and Stars

by ArkStationsLibrary



Category: The 100 (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-06
Updated: 2014-06-06
Packaged: 2018-02-03 15:57:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1750304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArkStationsLibrary/pseuds/ArkStationsLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Titanic Au. Sort of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghosts and Stars

The engagement party is happening inside on the First Class Deck. Clarke Griffin knows she should be in there. Wells will be looking for her, if her Mother doesn’t find her first. Instead, she is outside standing on the ship’s poop deck. The cool, night air makes her blond curls brush against her cheek and for the millionth time she wishes she could be anywhere else. The Titanic 3000 is supposed to be a ship of dreams, just like its predecessor. It’s a novelty built by the wealthy family members of the Ark as a way to escape station life but something about being on it as they float through the starry night sky chills her to the bone.

Knowing the story of the ship it’s named for, it’s like being on a ghost. But Chancellor Jaha had seemed to think it a fitting place for his son’s engagement party, and so there they were, everyone waiting to see the happy couple.

Clarke should have been happy. In many respects, some would say that Wells is perfect. They’ve been best friends since they were kids, and it was only natural they’d end up together. But lately something inside Clarke’s changed.

She keeps on staring at the earth, wishing there was something more than just wide, open, endless space with its dark vastness. There is a hole opening up in her heart, threatening to consume her and she just wants something to make it stop.

Clarke stares at the railing, and starts to climb it.

It would be so easy.

She could just jump and float off, into nothingness, and become a shadow amongst the stars. Then she hears a voice behind her say, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Princess.”

She freezes just as her hand grips the railing. Clarke turns over her shoulder to see a tall, dark haired young cadet standing there holding out his hand. “See, if you jump, they’re going to think I did it because I’m out here, alone,” says the cadet, “and I’d really rather you didn’t jump. Besides, what’s a pretty girl like you want to end your life for?”

The question makes her stop. She glances from the cadet back out to the vast emptiness of space. Then, she grabs his hand. The cadet steadies her with his other as he helps her down off of the railing. When her feet are on the ground, she is pressed up against him. He grins at her, and she pulls away.

“Thanks,” she tells him, though she isn’t so sure why.

“So,” he says, “are you going to tell me what a nice girl like you is doing getting ready to do something terrible like this?”

She squints at him trying hard to figure out if he’s curious for gossip reasons or if he actually cares. She could just leave, head back inside without a word and no one would be any wiser. But something inside her is bubbling on the surface.

She wants to do something, even if it is only talking. “I made a mistake,” she confesses, “I said yes to something I shouldn’t have.”

The cadet raises an eyebrow. “The Chancellors son?”

Clarke nods. “But I can’t back out now. There are too many people depending on this, and if I say I don’t want it, it will be like…”

“Like you’re failing them,” he says, “that’s how I felt about joining the guard.”

“You don’t want to be a guardsman?” she asks.

“No,” he tells her, “but that’s what you do for family. You make sacrifices.”

She looks away from him, into one of the ships windows. Inside, everyone is laughing, the orchestra is playing, and she sees her Father and Mother swaying. Jake and Abigail Griffin are partners in every sense of the word.

They move together like a unit.

She wants that, and even though Wells is her best friend, sometimes she thinks that they’ve never been more off sync lately. Especially about this stupid party, that she tried to tell him a million times that she didn’t want but that his family insisted on.

She still had her medical training to finish, and she just wanted a quiet affair. But the quiet affair had turned into a five day extravaganza, much to her chagrin, complete quite literally with a firework show.

It seemed silly to be worked up over something like party planning, and yet…and yet…

“Want to dance?” The cadet asks, holding out his hand again.

She laughs tiredly. “We can’t even hear the music out here.”

“Well, I thought about waiting until we were inside, but I figured Wells wouldn’t approve of that much,” he confesses.

She stares apprehensively at his hand, and then says, “Only if you tell me your name.”

“Cadet Bellamy Blake, at your service, Princess.”

She rolls her eyes at his nickname for her but allows him to take her in his arms. Together, they sway, with his hands wrapped around her waist and hers around his neck. For a moment, Clarke forgets that there are people inside waiting to celebrate what’s supposed to be a huge moment in her life.

Bellamy surprises her when he suddenly says, “If I had a way to get out of here, would you come?”

“Of course,” she replies, a little too quickly, but then thinks, to hell with it.

The place is stifling her. All she wants to do is scream, but Bellamy Blake, in a very short time, has managed to make her feel like something resembling a person again. Bellamy smiles widely, grabs her by the hand, and like children they run through the ship.

They only stop when they reach the other side, where the silver, round, rescue pod ships are. “Bellamy!” Clarke hisses. “We can’t! Those are only supposed to be for emergencies.”

“Exactly,” says Bellamy, “you don’t want to be here, I don’t want to be here. I’d say that’s an emergency.”

He manages to unlock the rescue pods door then looks at her expectantly. “You in or you out Princess?”

Clarke hesitates. If she goes inside that rescue pod, she is throwing everything she’s ever known away. But if she doesn’t, she’s going back to a place that left her feeling like she wanted to crumple.

“I’m in,” she tells him, and crawls inside.

Bellamy follows after, closes the door, and starts the engine. They fly off into the night sky, and Clarke laughs as she squeezes his hand close to her, feeling alive again.

Fin.


End file.
